354 Cave cuiitaining Bones. 



AiiT. XXI 1. — JVotice of a Cave containing Bones, in Lanark. 

 Upper Canada.'^ By John f. Bigsby, M.D. F L.S. &;c. 



Prof. Silliman, 



Dear Sir, 



You are perhaps not aware that a cave containing bones 

 was discovered last autumn, in the township of La iajk, Up- 

 per Canada, on the river Mississippi, a branch of the Ottawa. 

 It is 23 miles north of the village of Perth. It is 10 feet 

 below the surface, with which it communicates by a sort of 

 shaft just large enough to admit of the entrance of a man. 

 This shaft or passage leading down into the cave is 2 feet 

 three inches wide by 1 foot nine inches broad The cave is 

 25 feet long by 15 broad, and is 6 feet high in the middle, 

 gradually lowering at each end : at the extremity most re- 

 mote from the shaft, there is a fissure 2 feet by six 

 inches, and therefore too small to allow of further penetra- 

 tion. The floor of the cave is covered with fragments of the 

 dark coloured granular limestone of which it is formed. The 

 sides and roof are covered with small mammillary concre- 

 tions of calcspar. The bones are in the state of grave- ones, 

 very large — and were chiefly found in a heap near, but not 

 under, the aperture from above — others Viiere found scattered 

 a nong the debris of the floor. This aperture was open when 

 it was discovered by Mr. Colquhoun, the owner of the 

 ground. In clearing the land he observed the hole at the 

 fo 't of a tree, and curiosity induced him to descend. 



Mr Robe of the Royal Staff Corps, from whom all my 

 information is derived, tells me that the animal whose bones 

 are found in this cave, is much too large to have entered 

 t le cave alive or whole. 



In November last I saw a hint of this discovery in a Ca- 

 nadian newspaper. 1 was at Philadelphia; but immediately 

 wrote to this enterprising and intelligent officer who was re- 

 siding at Montreal. He took horse directly, and went to the 

 spot, at the distance of 200 miles into the forest, examined 

 the cave, and by favour of Dr. Wilson, of Perth, brought all 

 the bones to Montreal, 



* Extracted from two letters to the Editor, dated Philadelphia, Feb- 

 ruary 4th, 1825, and March 4th, 1825. 



